80K People Want a Hummer EV, Two Have Been Delivered in 2023

The GMC Hummer EV certainly seems like a niche vehicle. It’s an all-electric “supertruck,” available first in a pickup design and now as an SUV too. The first models, labeled Edition 1, started over $100,000, and the cheapest trim now is still over $80,000. These are not workaday electric vehicles. On the consumer side, these are extravagant playthings for the rich. For General Motors, these are the titanic harbingers of a new electrified age.

Despite all of these barriers to entry, the Hummer EV has been extraordinarily popular. According to The Wall Street Journal, the electric supertruck currently has a waitlist of over 80,000 people (these are people who paid a $100 deposit, which is a better sign of real interest as opposed to just entering your email). So why aren’t you seeing these EVs rumbling all over the country? GMC can’t get them out the door. In the first quarter of 2023, only two Hummers were delivered to customers.

That’s not a typo. Two Hummers. That’s it. For reference, Chevrolet delivered 19,700 Bolt EVs in the same span of time, the best quarterly sales ever for Bolt vehicles (Chevrolet and GMC are both GM brands).

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Production of the Hummer EV has been plagued by a few problems in recent months. As The Drive explained, there was a recall issued last October having to do with the battery pack not being sealed properly and the risk of water accumulation. A GM spokesperson told Fox Business that a solution was implemented and production restarted on January 31, but they also had to fix trucks that were already in the hands of owners and those on dealer lots. GM hasn’t provided a full explanation of why they ended up with only two deliveries in the first three months of 2023.

This is a twofold problem for General Motors. For those who already have reservations in, they may be more inclined to jump ship and try ordering something like a Rivian or Ford F-150 Lightning instead (or maybe put in a reservation for all three and buy the one that is available first). And for people who are interested but haven’t made a reservation, this may sour their opinion of GM’s new electric vehicles (the Chevrolet Bolt models, however, are built on an older EV architecture).

But the automaker is keeping a consumer-facing smile on. GM told The Wall Street Journal that they expect EV production to ramp up significantly this year, especially in the latter half, for the Hummer EV as well as other new models like the Cadillac Lyriq. For reservation holders, they’ll believe it when they can CrabWalk.